Pixability - Mythbusting: Engineering a Viral Video
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Mythbusting: Engineering a Viral Video FutureM 2013 October 18, 2013 #futureM #viralvid
description
FutureM 2013 session with Pixability. Speaker: Bettina Hein Founder and CEO, Pixability, Inc. No matter how you do the math, there’s no ROI on a video with no views. You just have to make your video go ‘viral’, right? But counting on a video to go viral is not so different from planning your income from lottery scratch ticket returns. Virality on YouTube is often misunderstood and myths abound. It’s a properly engineered video that drives views, amplifies content sharing, and generates widespread community interaction. Look behind the scenes of recent video hits with Bettina Hein, CEO of Pixability, as she discusses the importance of content planning, digital strategy, metadata, seeding, humor, production, community, social, analytics and YouTube in making videos viral.
Transcript of Pixability - Mythbusting: Engineering a Viral Video
Mythbusting: Engineering a Viral Video
FutureM 2013October 18, 2013#futureM #viralvid
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What is a viral video?
Wikipedia:
"A viral video is a video that becomes popular through the process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites, social media and email.”
Why should marketers care?
FREE Awareness?
FREE Views?
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The Whole Hog of A Viral Video
UnderbellyHeart
Brain Ribs
Tail
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Agenda
The whole hog of a viral video• Heart: creating good content• Ribs: social outreach and sharing• Underbelly: robots and incentivized
views• Brain: engineering it with data• Right Feed: paid YouTube ads• Tail: luck
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Brilliant commercial that went viral?
84% of views from paid views
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Brilliant commercial that went viral?
59% of views from advertising
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The Heart: Good Content
UnderbellyHeart
Brain Ribs
Tail
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Sometimes things just come together
3,243,299 times shared on Facebook
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Good content is often a steady view earner
• Know your targets intimately• Example: Build Direct from Canada
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Steady view earners deliver better ROI
• Know your targets intimately• Example: Build Direct from Canada
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The Ribs: Social Outreach and Sharing
Underbelly
Heart
Brain RibsTail
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Real virality is often smaller
541,296 times shared on Facebook
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The ribs: social outreach and sharing
Connecting to your real target audienceMake relevant contentLobby tastemakers and find passionate enthusiastsBuild subscribershipEncourage participationUse cross-pollination of email, FB, Twitter, Pinterest,
G+
Relevance Passionate Enthusiasts Subscribers Participation Cross-
pollination
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Seeding promises
“Get your video seen by the right people.”
“We generate millions of monthly opt-in views on social networks, mobile devices and YouTube.”
“We use proprietary technology to turn target audiences into engaged viewers and engaged viewers into customers.”
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Caveat emptor: Seeding can be seedy
A supposedly “organic” blog post generated by a seeding campaign.
“…XYZ — the viral video house behind this clip. XYZ knows. Shop at XYZ.”
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What are you getting when you seed?
Click-through rates for a seeded campaign:
Views: 284,894Click-throughs: 17CTR: 0.006%
Compare to average YouTube adCTR: 3.5%
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The Underbelly: Bots and ‘Incentivized’
UnderbellyHeart
Brain Ribs
Tail
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Buying robot views: 1M views for $800
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Why this is a bad idea: Google will catch you
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Slightly better cuts: incentivized views
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The Brain: How to Engineer It
Underbelly
Heart
Brain Ribs
Tail
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How many people are watching? What?
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What is your target audience watching?
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Understand the audience and competition
Look at metrics on:• Audience size• Most popular
content types and sub topics
• Social media reactions
• Viewer sentiment• Traffic Sources
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Metadata: what matters and why
• Titles• Tags• Descriptions• Target links• Annotations
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Track YouTube search and social rankings
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The Right Feed: Paid Ads
Underbelly
Heart
Brain Ribs
Tail
Feed
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Paid, owned and earned media work together
Promoted Video Ad
Social SharingBuild a community around your video
content
YouTube AdsMuch more cost-
effective than TV and online display ads
YouTube ChannelA video channel
that you own and control fully
WebsiteDriving conversions
through highly qualified website traffic
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YouTube ad placements: Choose carefully
Best practices:1. Use varying formats (search,
in-display, pre-roll)2. No need to stick to 30-
second spots3. Use time of day according to
target4. Geographic focus if
necessary5. Don’t always optimize for
direct website clicks
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The Tail
Underbelly
Heart
Brain Ribs
Tail
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LUCK
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Serendipity can happen
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Engineering results: It all works together
Channel subscriber growth
Organic YouTube Traffic
Pre-campaign Campaign
Pre-campaign Campaign
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Summary
• Heart: Know your audience before you create
• Ribs: Share the passion and seed carefully
• Underbelly: Don’t do it• Brain: Track and clone yourself to
success• Right Feed: YouTube ads done right are
worth it• Tail: Be ready when luck happens
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Get this presentation?
• Bettina Hein, Founder and CEO Email: [email protected] Phone: (617) 710 5772 @bettinahein
• Rob Ciampa, EVP Marketing Email: [email protected] Phone: (617) 774-9600 @robciampa
Go to pixability.com/futureM2013
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YouTube Advertising: How It Works
1. Select:Choose one or several of your YouTube videos as ads.
2. Place: Put ads where your target audience already is.
3. Call to Action: Users can click through to your website for more information.
Value for money: Charged per engaged video view, not per click or impression
Extremely flexible: Various cost per view (CPV) ranges available depending on format and targeting
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Does it have to be Gangnam Style?
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When should you buy incentivized views?• Never to
inflate views• Awareness
only – do not expect any action
• When there is a good match of demographic
• Example: promotion of video game launch on gaming site
